Folks with an uncommon taste are flocking into the greening hills these days. For it is ramp digging time and ramp-eating time. Mountain folks are so fond of them they would not swap a mess for all the caviar in Russia!
To those unfamiliar with ramps, however, this is a warning to either take on a bait in self defense or stay upwind on meeting with a ramp eater.
The ramp grows in profusion in the high, cool hills of Graham County. Folks in the highlands have been eating ramps since the first white settlers moved in some 250 years ago. They were introduced to the strong smelling vegetables by the Cherokee.
The ramp is a sort of wild onion which grows in buckeye flats high up in the mountains. Now a buckeye flat is a rich mountain cove, and when it is occupied in dogwood time by tender ramps it is a favorite rendezvous of mountain folk.
The ramp has a root about the size of a walnut. Its two broad leaves are about eight inches long.
There are dozens of ways to eat ramps and twice as many ways to fix them. Ramp lovers insist that they are good with just about anything – eggs, ham, bear meat, or you just name it.
Some of the mountain women make what they call ramp pudding. Their recipe is to take ground beef, three pints of ramps, a can of tomato soup, Worcestershire sauce, six to eight eggs, season heavily with salt and pepper, mix it all up and top with butter, and bake in an oven for about 70 minutes.
Dedicated ramp eaters say that ramps should be eaten only from the time they ripen in late March or early April until about the middle of June. After that, supposedly they get tough and the tops die and they are not fit to eat.
Right now, ramps are mighty tender. And that’s why folks with an uncommon taste are flocking into the hills!